Hearing aids generally include a microphone, speaker and an amplifier. Other hearing aids assist with amplifying sound within an environment or frequencies of sound. Hearing aids have limited utility to individuals who wear them. What is needed is an improved hearing aid with added functionality.
Individuals vary in sensitivity to sound at different frequency bands, and this individual sensitivity may be measured using an audiometer to develop a hearing profile for different individuals. An individual's hearing profile may change with time and may vary markedly in different environments. However, audiometric testing may require specialized skills and equipment, and may therefore be relatively inconvenient or expensive. At the same time, use of hearing profile data is generally limited to applications related to medical hearing aids. Use of hearing profile data is generally not available in consumer electronic devices used for listening to audio output, referred to herein as personal listening devices.
Various player/listening devices are known in the art for providing audio output to a user. For example, portable radios, tape players, CD players, iPod™, and cellular telephones are known to process analog or digital data input to provide an amplified analog audio signal for output to external speakers, headphones, earbuds, or the like. Many of such devices are provided in a portable, handheld form factor. Others, for example home stereo systems and television sets, are much larger and not generally considered portable. Whatever the size of prior art devices, prior art listening devices may be provided with equalizing amplifiers separating an audio signal into different frequency bands and amplifying each band separately in response to a control input. Control is typically done manually using an array of sliding or other controls provided in a user interface device, to set desired equalization levels for each frequency band. The user or a sound engineer may set the controls to achieve a desired sound in a given environment. Some listening systems provide preset equalization levels to achieve predefined effects, for example, a “concert hall” effect. However, prior art personal listening devices are not able to automatically set equalization levels personalized to compensate for any hearing deficiencies existing in an individual's hearing profile. In other words, prior art listening devices cannot automatically adjust their audio output to compensate for individual amplification needs.
It would be desirable, therefore, to provide a hearing aid able to enhance enjoyment of audio and music for those with hearing disabilities.